1/6 Insurrection Investigation

[Rick Plant]

RNC has ‘gone all-in on the insurrection’ while excusing ‘bigoted rantings’: Charlie Sykes



Conservative columnist Charlie Sykes published a hard-hitting column on Friday after the Republican National Committee's resolutions committee unanimously voted to censure Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the House Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol.

"The timing of the resolution is notable — coming just days after Donald Trump dangled pardons for the Insurrectionists who tried to help him overturn the election, and just days after he threatened mass unrest if prosecutors try to hold him accountable. It comes the week we learned of Trump’s push to have the government seize voting machines, and got more details about his plan to use faked and forged electoral vote certificates to force Mike Pence to overturn the election," he wrote. "And it came as Trump continued to ratchet up his lies about his electoral defeat."

Despite Trump's ongoing lies about democracy, Sykes said that there was no discussion about a censure of the former president.

"Nor was there even the slightest suggestion that perhaps the party should distance itself from the bizarre bigoted rantings of [Marjorie Taylor Greene] (R-GA), or Paul Gosar (R-AZ), or Lauren Boebert (R-CO), or Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)," he wrote. "The purge came only for Cheney and Kinzinger. Because, of course, this Republican party now has one standard, and one standard only: loyalty to the exiled Orange God King and his ongoing obstruction of justice."

READ: Trump came perilously close to carrying out Sidney Powell's bizarre plot to steal the election: report

Sykes described the symbolic resolution as "a performative act of groveling to the defeated, disgraced, twice-impeached former president."

The conservative writer was shocked that the language of the resolution described the Jan. 6 rioters as "ordinary citizens" who were engaged in "legitimate political discourse."

"So let’s not put too fine a point on this: The Republican National Committee is fully embracing the Trumpian ret-conning of January 6 as a peaceful protest, and, in the process, has gone all-in on the Insurrection itself.

Read the full column:

https://morningshots.thebulwark.com/p/the-rnc-joins-the-insurrection


Momentum grows for Jan. 6 committee to grant limited immunity to compel testimony of Trump DOJ official



Ambassador Norm Eisen, who served as co-counsel for the House Judiciary Committee during Donald Trump's first impeachment trial, argued on CNN on Friday that the Select Committee to Investigate the Jan. 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol should consider giving "use" immunity to former Trump DOJ official Jeffrey Clark.

During a Wednesday deposition, Clark reportedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 100 times.

"Norm, do you think it's worth offering immunity to Clark or anyone else?" CNN's Ana Cabrera asked.

"I do think that statutory immunity should be considered, so we can get to the truth of what Mr. Clark has to say as one of the inside coup lawyers — perhaps the leading one inside the government — pushing for the overthrow of a legitimate election," Eisen replied. "Remember, they do have to keep it close or it can taint any possible prosecution of Clark outside of Congress. That's what happened with Ollie North, most famously."

READ: Dallas QAnon leader demanding followers shun their families as his ravings become more bizarre

"So, yes, I think it should be considered," he said.

The idea got a major boost on Thursday when it was floated by Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), who is the only member of the select committee who is also a veteran of the Watergate investigation of Richard Nixon.

Watch video in link below:

https://www.rawstory.com/jeffrey-clark-2656559647/


MAGA rioter tells court he lost his 'six-figure job' to storm the Capitol for Donald Trump



MAGA rioter Richard Barnard appeared in court on Friday to receive his sentence after he pleaded guilty last year to a Class B misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

According to Politico's Kyle Cheney, Barnard told the court that his life had been completely devastated ever since he made the fateful decision in January 6th, 2020 to storm the Capitol on behalf of former President Donald Trump.

As Cheney reports, Barnard says that he lost his "six-figure job," as well as his credit rating and retirement savings because he participated in the MAGA riot.

"There’s nothing the court can do to me that will come even close to what I’ve lost," he said.

According to Court House News, Barnard attended the Capitol riot with a fellow U.S. Marine Corps veteran from Texas, Jeffrey Witcher, who was caught on camera claiming that he had broken into the White House, when in reality he was in the United States Capitol building.

"I am in the White House!" Witcher boasted at the time. "We crashed this. Our house! We did it, family, we did it! We did it! We’re in the White House!"

https://www.rawstory.com/capitol-riot-sentences-2656561425/

[Rick Plant]

Not sure why journalists would be 'shocked'. The Republican Party has openly supported the insurrection and an attempted coup all along in their own words. The RNC just made it official. Remember, when you vote this November, either you are on the side of America and democracy or you are on the side of the insurrection traitors and fascism that the GOP is all in for. 

'Incredibly dark': Journalists shocked by RNC suggesting Jan. 6 attack was 'legitimate political discourse'



The Republican National Committee on Friday passed a resolution censuring Reps. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) for participating in the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th Capitol riots.

While the resolution censuring the two Republicans had been widely reported, the actual text of the resolution still managed to shock many journalists.

Specifically, the resolution accused Cheney and Kinzinger of participating in the "persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse."

The sentence sickened MSNBC host Chris Hayes, who wrote on Twitter that "the RNC resolution is actually considerably worse and more debased than I had anticipated."

The New Republic's Matt Ford was similarly dumbstruck by the text of the resolution.

"Nothing insightful or clever to add here, just that we're in an incredibly dark place and it's going to get worse," he wrote.

Writing in response to Ford's comments, Daily Beast reporter Asawin Suebsaeng argued that it should sadly be no surprise that this is where the GOP has wound up.

"I THINK the speed at which the party started substantively crawling back to Trump, post-riot, was even swifter than they did post-Access Hollywood and post-Charlottesville," he wrote. "It was even faster than the speed the party came crawling back to Roy Moore, after… you know."

NBC News' Ryan Reilly, meanwhile, noted the extraordinary timing of the RNC's statement.

"Less than an hour after the RNC passed a resolution saying 'ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse' were being persecuted, a court hearing is underway for a Jan. 6 defendant who pepper sprayed cops in the face while clad in MAGA gear," he wrote.

And CQ Roll Call's John Donnelly said that this kind of resolution was simply unprecedented.

"I never thought I'd see a major American political party calling a violent attack on our national legislature ‘legitimate political discourse’ and censuring lawmakers who tell the truth about," he wrote. "This dwarfs all our other problems."

https://www.rawstory.com/rnc-cheney-kinzinger/

[Rick Plant]

'Go under oath and testify': Mike Pence called out for not coming forward earlier about Jan 6th



During his weekly appearance on MSNBC on Sunday afternoon, former Rep. Dave Jolly (R-FL) said it was all well and good that former vice president Mike Pence and his top aide are now speaking out about attempts to overturn the election at Donald Trump's request, but that they need to come clean about all of the details.

Speaking with host Alex Witt after watching a clip of former Pence aide Marc Short offering up some tepid criticism of the events of that day, Jolly stated that Short and Pence are trying to "normalize" what occurred.

"Do you think that Marc Short is giving President Trump sort of an off-ramp, a way to explain how everything evolved on January 6th. To basically say it wasn't me, it was the advice I was getting?" host Witt [prompted.

"Yeah, look, Marc Short is trying to normalize what was unconstitutional behavior and frankly an authoritarian coup that failed," Jolly said dismissively. "The voice of Mike Pence and Marc Short now are welcome because they are stating truth. But few people in this country had greater access to stopping what occurred between the election in November and the inauguration of Joe Biden than Mike Pence and Marc Short."

"So I think history will recall that they did very little when they had an opportunity," he pointed out. "But their voices are welcome. But now, go under oath and testify openly in front of the American people on the January 6th committee. That includes you, vice president Mike Pence."

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

Time for Jan 6th riot committee to call Trump and Pence to testify: former solicitor general



Appearing on "The Sunday Show" with host Jonathan Capehart, former Solicitor General Neal Katyal said that last week's revelations about Donald Trump's destruction of documents sought by the Jan 6th committee, along with Mike Pence's rebuke of the former president, is setting the stage for the committee to subpoena them both to testify.

Before noting the report about Trump ripping up official documents and having them burned, and calling it an "easy case" for the Justice Department to prosecute, Katyel called for the two Republicans to be questioned by the House select committee.

After host Capehart brought up calling former attorney general Bill Barr to testify, Katyal then moved on to Trump and Pence.

"I mentioned before, or it has been reported that, you know, Bill Barr has been having some kinds of preliminary conversations with the January 6th select committee," Capehart prompted. "What is the likelihood, the former attorney general, actually testifies before the committee?"

"The committee has got to call it," Katyal replied. "I think ultimately they have to call Pence and Trump too. I just think they're, you know, doing everything else first. Barr has to testify; somewhere in his soul, at some point, you know, he took an oath to uphold the constitutional laws and has to tell what happened. He was -- looks like drummed out or left the White House in December. So he can't speak to probably the events happening in January. "

"But it does look like these congressional investigators have started to uncover this plot which started just two weeks after the election, with a series of memos and then continued through December while Barr was in office and continued in January while you had people maneuvering like Jeffrey Clark to be the attorney general and, you know, seize voting machines," he continued.

"And the revelation this week, Jonathan, is that Donald Trump actually tore up all of these memos, you know, and so that investigators couldn't see all of that," he continued. "And, you know, maybe that's what Steve Bannon meant by the deconstruction of the administrative state or something. I don't know, but it is certainly illegal. The Presidential Records Act forbids that. That's an easy crime for a prosecutor to go after and Merrick Garland's Justice Department."

"The president was warned about this. This is a pretty -- this is an easy case and really hope that the Justice Department is looking into it," he concluded.

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

GOP's Adam Kinzinger warns of potential American civil war: 'Our basic survival is at stake'



On Monday's edition of CNN's "The Situation Room," Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) weighed in on the GOP's continued perpetuation of election lies and downplaying of the January 6 Capitol attack.

"How dangerous is it for the Republican National Committee to whitewash the events of that day and simply call it 'legitimate political discourse?'" asked anchor Wolf Blitzer.

"Oh, it is extremely dangerous and it is not even — it's, if there was a word even more intense than dangerous I would use that," said Kinzinger. "It is not a far thought, Wolf, to think that some day, some militia shows up somewhere to do something and then some countermilitia, and at that point that is how you end up in a civil war. I never would say that we would ever have ended in that position, but I now believe it is a real possibility that we have to be wide-eyed as we walk into so we don't have that happen again."

"You fear, potentially, there could be a civil war here in the United States?" Blitzer pushed him.

"I do," said Kinzinger. "And a year ago I would have said no, not a chance. But I've come to realize when we don't see each other as fellow Americans, when we begin to separate into cultural identities, when we begin to basically give up everything that we believe so we could be part of a group, and then when you have leaders that come and abuse that faithfulness of that group to violent ends, as we saw on January 6, we would be naïve to think it is not possible here."

Kinzinger concluded with a plea for more understanding between Americans.

"We have to look at this wide-eyed and walk in and say, we may have differences as left and right, but we have to bridge those differences, because our basic survival is at stake, the basic survival of this democracy," he said.

Watch below:

[Rick Plant]

Liz Cheney's 'Legitimate Political Discourse' Jan 6. Video Viewed 4M Times

A video tweeted out by GOP rep. Liz Cheney detailing the violence which occurred on January 6 to show it was not a "legitimate political discourse" has been viewed more than 4 million times.

The clip has gone viral after it was shared by the Wyoming congresswoman in the wake of the Republican National Committee describing the attack on the Capitol as ordinary citizens engaging in "legitimate political discourse" in a resolution to censure Cheney and rep. Adam Kinzinger.

A vote to censure Cheney and Kinzinger, the only two Republicans on the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack, was passed by the RNC on Friday, February 4.

After the resolution was approved, Cheney tweeted a 31-second video showing a violent mob attacking police officers with flag poles and other objects, as well as storming into the building and forcing their way past barricades during the riot.

"This was January 6th. This is not 'legitimate political discourse,'" Cheney wrote.

The post has since been retweeted more than 62,000 times, with the video gaining millions of views online.

More than 725 people have so far been arrested in connection to the January 6 attack, in which more than than 100 police officers were injured.

Eleven members of the far-right Oath Keepers group have also been charged with seditious conspiracy after allegedly plotting to violently stop the certification of the 2020 election results in favor of Joe Biden.

In a statement prior to the vote taking place, Cheney accused the GOP of being "willing hostages" to Donald Trump even after he admitted his goal on January 6 was to overturn the election results and promised to pardon those convicted in connection to the insurrection.

"I'm a constitutional conservative and I do not recognize those in my party who have abandoned the Constitution to embrace Donald Trump," Cheney said. "History will be their judge. I will never stop fighting for our constitutional republic. No matter what."

Kinzinger also dismissed the GOP's description of the January 6 attack after the censure vote.

In a tweet, the Illinois congressman shared an image from the riot within an online security check frame asking users to "select all squares with legitimate political discourse." The tweet was directed to the GOP House minority leader with the caption "What do you say Kevin [McCarthy]?"

Trump, who was impeached for the second time after being accused of inciting the January 6 attack before being cleared by the Senate, celebrated the censoring of Cheney and Kinzinger. In a statement the former president described the pair as "two horrible RINOs [Republican In Name Only] who put themselves ahead of our Country."

Cheney has been contacted for comment.

Watch video in link below:

https://www.newsweek.com/liz-cheney-legitimate-political-discourse-jan6-video-1676656

[Rick Plant]

Column: The RNC's grotesque ideas about 'legitimate political discourse'
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2022-02-08/republican-national-committee-legitimate-political-discourse-liz-cheney